Meng Xiao Ni trailed behind the old man. They went past a row of shops and entered one of the buildings in the building materials market.
There were shops all around the building materials market, and the larger buildings were packed full of furniture shops and decor stores.
The furniture stores were stocked with all kinds of cabinets, tables, chairs and beds, while the decor stores dealt with flooring, curtains and so on.
There were also studios in the building materials market.
A typical studio in the building materials market was basically just a small space without even a proper shop signage. Instead, the shop name was usually just simply painted directly on the door. The services they provide range from interior design, to direct liaison with suppliers, to helping people make furniture or decor choices.
The most common service of these studios, however, had nothing to do with furnishing and renovation. In most, if not all of them, sat a bookkeeper who was responsible for issuing and managing the invoices of the various stores in the building materials market.
Meng Xiao Ni was completely unaware of all these and was tricked into a small studio on the first floor by the old man.
Inside sat a bald, bespectacled middle-aged man. He was watching a drama on the tablet in front of him as he drank tea from an enamel cup.
Hearing the noise as they entered, he raised his head and glanced at the door. “Invoicing?”
Meng Xiao Ni stopped in her tracks instantly after walking through the door.
The old man next to her groused, “Pah! What invoicing? What’s the point of spending so many years studying architecture if you were just going to get a bookkeeping certificate and become a bookkeeper in the end?”
Lost in his grumbling, he completely forgot about his proud claims and bold promises.
Meng Xiao Ni glanced around the small “studio”. “Apart from invoicing, do you accept renovation jobs?”
Ads begun to play from the tablet in front of the middle-aged man.
He gave Meng Xiao Ni a once-over. “Running an errand for your parents? The first floor is Asian-style, second floor is American-style, and third floor is European-style. If you need to issue an invoice, you can come back to look for me. Start bargaining at 40% off. Anyone who insists on anything higher is trying to cheat you.”
Meng Xiao Ni was somewhat startled. “Oh.”
The middle-aged man gave her a careless wave. “I’m going back to my drama. We close at eleven.”
The old man was beside himself at his son’s flippant attitude. “Why are you chasing away your customer? And what 40% off?! You’ll be the death of me! Turtle son!”
His accent grew stronger as he ranted on.
The old man could not be appeased with just cursing at his son. He started whacking his son’s head madly with his large cattail leaf fan. But as the fan was an offering burnt for him by his family, it was an object of the underworld. As a result, the fan went right through his son’s head, and there was no impact at all.
Tickled by this scene, Meng Xiao Ni turned her head chucked to herself.
The middle-aged man was completely oblivious to everything. He turned his attention back to his tablet as the ads ended, took a large gulp of his hot drink, and let out a long sigh of satisfaction.
The old man grew even angrier and started punching and kicking at his son.
Meng Xiao Ni’s shoulders trembled with the effort of trying to suppress her laugher.
She walked out of the studio and let her laughter overcome her. She then stuck her head back in, her eyes shining with amusement. “Uncle, my family’s hot pot eatery needs to be renovated. I’ve already come up with the new design. Can you take a look and advise me on the materials?”
The middle-aged man finally pressed the pause button. He gave her a dubious look. “I only issue invoices here.”
“Then do you provide any other services part-time? For example, interior architecture design?” Meng Xiao Ni asked.
The middle-aged man frowned. “Who told you that I can that?”
Meng Xiao Ni scratched her face absently. “I ran into an old man a few years ago. He boasted to me that his son worked here, and that he used to study architecture. Have I got the wrong person? At that time, I’d just finished the college entrance examinations. Come to think of it, his grandson should’ve just finished his college entrance examinations this year too.”
Realisation dawned on the middle-aged man’s face. “You must’ve met my father. He passed away three years ago.”
“I’m sorry,” said Meng Xiao Ni apologetically.
The middle-aged man beckoned at her to step in. “It’s fine. Since he’d mentioned it, I’ll help look over your plans. You came up with the designs yourself? Did you study design?”
Meng Xiao Ni re-entered the studio. “No, I studied business management.”
As he was physically unable to land any blows, the old man finally gave up on his attacks.
He let out a long sigh and muttered incessantly. “My son is smart and had good grades. He insisted on studying architecture, saying that there will be better prospects. But he burnt out in only a few years after graduation. Now, he only does simple jobs. He really can’t bear any hardship at all! My grandchildren’s grades are good too. I just hope they take good care of their health…”
The middle-aged man took out a business card and place it on the table. “I’m Lao Lu. Bookkeeper. I worked in interior architectural design for a few years in the past and even won a couple of small awards. At that time, my old man nagged at me nonstop, so I changed careers, but he still continued to nag. But never mind all of that. Let me have a look at your plans.”
Meng Xiao Ni struggled to keep up as both father and son’s voices overlapped.
She took Lao Lu’s business card, looked around for a chair and sat down. Then, she brought her notebook out from her bag.
The notebook was plain and ordinary, the typical sort you can find in any stationery store.
She opened it to the right page and pushed it towards Lao Lu. “Here, Uncle Lu. I want to renovate our family’s hot pot eatery. It’s a very small shop, and we don’t have a large budget. We don’t need to use the finest materials. As long as it’s safe, environmentally friendly, and can be completed quickly, it’ll be fine. The commission fees can be negotiated.”
Lao Lu took the notebook. “Times are different, and trends are changing every day. It’s getting hard to keep up. If you want the best materials, you won’t be able to find them here in this old building materials market.”
He mentioned nothing about commission fees, and instead, focused on studying the design plans in front of him.
It’s always a headache for a trained eye to look at a layman’s design plans.
Drawings of doors and windows look nothing like what they’re supposed to represent.
The floor plan was drawn according to her own ideas, and the only thing commendable about it was that the dimensions of each space was clearly noted.
Thankfully, as the store wasn’t big, and was only a single floor, there wasn’t much to see, and Lao Lu managed to hold back the urge to toss the notebook back.
He clicked his tongue. “Well, I can roughly understand what your vision is from your drawings.”
Meng Xiao Ni edged forward in her chair. “I want to make it a themed restaurant. Isn’t Fengdu called the Ghost Capital? I want to base the theme on the Underworld. Maybe make the entire environment darker, with warm-hued lighting. The walls can feature somewhat abstract, Chinese-style paintings. Tables and chairs can also be specially made to suit the theme.”
Lao Lu nodded, “The idea is very good. Who will design the walls, tables and chairs?”
He slid his finger over the page. “It’s such a large surface— have you found an artist? Will you be painting directly on the wall, or print it as wallpaper and put it up? Can the tables and chairs be feasibly manufactured? The materials for the walls and flooring are actually the easiest aspects of this plan.”
“I haven’t found an artist yet,” replied Meng Xiao Ni frankly.
Lao Lu raised his head and gave Meng Xiao Ni a wry smile. “It’s very expensive. A good mural painting can be more expensive than your entire renovation budget.”
“Maybe… get college students to do it?” suggested Meng Xiao Ni.
“You get what you pay for. But that could be one way to go about it!”
College students are cheap labour, everyone knows that.
“Does Uncle Lu have someone to recommend?” ventured Meng Xiao Ni.
Lao Lu nodded, “Oh, not at the moment.”
“…”
Why nod if you’re saying no?
Seeing the stiff expression on Meng Xiao Ni face, Lao Lu chuckled. “I really don’t. I graduated 20 years ago and don’t know any college students. If you have the budget for it, I can help you ask my classmates’ students.”
The impoverished Meng Xiao Ni nodded. “Well, I don’t have much money.”
Why nod if you have no money?
Lao Lu smiled and shook his head, “First, draw up an estimated budget. Renovation is a complex undertaking. But it is also a worthwhile investment. Figure out how much you can spare, and I’ll give you some pointers on what you can do with it. I won’t charge you for it.”
To be treated with such honesty and friendliness by a complete stranger is a rare occurrence indeed.
Meng Xiao Ni was well aware of that. “Although I don’t have much, I still have to give you something for your time.”
Lao Lu has met too many characters in his years in the building materials market. “You look like a student with not much spending power. Even if you go to the shops in the building materials market, you’d most likely be ignored.”
“…”
She had been completely ignored in the first shop that she went into.
Lao Lu flipped through the notebook and saw that there were pages of plans apart from the designs she showed him. “Oh, so you’ve already done into so much detail. So, how much have you budgeted for the renovation?”
“Just a little under twenty thousand1,” confessed Meng Xiao Ni.
Lao Lu reached for a pen at the side of the table and started scribbling in her notebook. “That’s not quite enough. You have to look through the budget again.”
Meng Xiao Ni tried to read Lao Lu’s words.
Lao Lu’s handwriting can rival that of medicine school lecturers. At one glace, the mess of scrawls and shorthand were completely illegible.
“Flooring, walls, murals, tables and chairs, cutlery, packaging design, oil-proofing, range hoods…” Lao Lu mumbled as he wrote. “Twenty thousand is really too little.”
At his words, Meng Xiao Ni grew anxious. “Then, will forty thousand be enough?”
The family still had some savings, which they’d put aside to renovate the new apartment.
Lao Lu did not look up. “Of course it’s not. Do you think you’re simply renovating a rental apartment?”
“…”
It actually costs so much to renovate a rental apartment?
Lao Lu stopped writing. “Well, it’s not completely impossible. Start with the essentials first and do more when you have more money. You don’t have to buy the best materials for everything, and don’t buy in excess— use up everything you buy. Got it?”
Meng Xiao Ni nodded.
Lao Lu knew that Meng Xiao Ni really had no money. He paused and thought for a while. “Just credit me as the designer of your eatery. Who knows, I might have a breakthrough in my middle-age, and get a couple more design projects after this. You can’t afford my fees with that measly budget of yours.”
Meng Xiao Ni didn’t expect that the services of one such as Lao Lu from the building materials market cost more than 20,000 yuan.
Then, how much would it cost to get college students to paint a mural?
The spirit of Elder Lu next to her started to speak again. “My son is an honest man; he wouldn’t cheat you. I don’t know why he’s suddenly thought it through and decided to do design work again! I kept trying to persuade him for several years while I was still alive, but it only ended in quarrels.”
He became increasingly aggrieved as he lamented.
Meng Xiao Ni listened to Elder Lu absently and wondered at Lao Lu’s change of heart too.
She hesitated before deciding to ask, “Uncle Lu, why did you change your mind and decide to take up design work again?”
Lao Lu picked up the enamel cup beside him and took a large gulps. “Why else? My son is going to college, and afterwards, he will need a house, a car, have a wife, and his own children. How can I support him by just being a bookkeeper in a building materials market?”
In the end, humans seem to always be trapped by financial woes.
Meng Xiao Ni suddenly understood. “So, my eatery will serve as your living signboard?”
“Yes. Hopefully my old man didn’t make a mistake in his judgement of your abilities,” replied Lao Lu.
Elder Lu swatted his fan madly at Lao Lu again. “What mistake in judgement! You are the big mistake! You turtle son!”
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Footnotes
1 20,000 Yuan: approx. USD$ 3100
T/n: There’s no food in this chapter! Here are some images of a typical building materials market in China to help paint a better picture of where this is taking place. The market is not a literal market, but an area with several complexes and buildings, filled with businesses related to building and renovation.
